Interviews

The End: Pixx

From Pig to Man

To end out the week, we ask Pixx (aka British musician Hannah Rodgers) some questions about endings and death.

Pixx released her sophomore album, Small Mercies, last month via 4AD. The albumis the follow-up to 2017's The Age of Anxiety and was co-produced by Simon Byrt and Dan Carey. Small Mercies certainly doesn't pull any punches and gets into a slew of topics, including the damage done by organized religion, our environmental crisis, self-love, and more. Album-opener and highlight "Andean Condor" was #1 on our Songs of the Week list and it tackles gender politics. "Mature males tend to be at the top of the pecking order/It's stale/Detest it cos you want to," Rodgers sings in the #MeToo anthem. "Dance for me boy/Give me a twirl/I want to get to know you/But I probably won't blow you."

Rodgers had this to say about Small Mercies in a press release announcing the album: "I felt more of a drive to write about certain subjects with this album. Man negotiating with God, God negotiating with man and man negotiating with the planet. I find it hard to have an understanding of relationships in general-I think everyone does-and the addictive tendency that we have to look for something that's eternal is something that intrigues me. So, if you love God maybe what draws you to that is the idea of something that's never going to end and that really intense love often takes place in human relationships, too."

Read on as Rodgers talks about what song she'd like playing on her deathbed, her favorite endings to books and albums, and her concepts of heaven and hell.

What song would you like to be playing at your deathbed?

"Vitamin C" by CAN. I think I'd die smiling and dancing which would be nice. If you happen to be there please put it on for me.

What's your favorite last line in a book?

Animal Farm by George Orwell is still one of my favorite books! It ends with this: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

What's your favorite last song on an album?

"Two of Us" from Supertramp's record Crisis? What Crisis? It's a pretty epic last track but it feels like perfect closure for the record. It's a moment of bliss whilst asking some deep questions about humankind and its fate. It gives me a real melancholic feeling, and it's very suited to the state we're in right now. The last line of the song is "just as long as there's two of us, we'll carry on."

If you were on death row, what would you like your last meal to be?

A spicy, mushroom heavy bowl of pho accompanied by a packet of cigarettes and a pint of Asahi.

What would be your own personal version of heaven if it exists?

A place where everyone is treated equally, there's never less than 12 hours of daylight and it's spring twice a year.

What song would you like to be performed at your funeral and who would you like to sing it?

"Käes on aeg" by Velly Joonas. This song is so sexy. I don't actually know what the lyrics are saying exactly because I don't speak Estonian, but I'd love to see everyone listening to this at the wake.

What's your favorite ending to a movie?

It's a Wonderful Life.

If reincarnation exists, who or what would you like to be reincarnated as?

An albatross.

What would you like your last words to be?

I'll see you on the flip side!

What would be the worst punishment the devil could devise for you in hell, if he exists?

I'm going to go with toothache since my wisdom teeth are causing such an intense burning pain right now, it feels like there's a little bit of hell in my mouth.